News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

‘No manifestos include effective implementation of RTE Act’

Accusing all the major political parties of failing to
include “effective implementation of the Right to Education Act in
Delhi” in their manifestos for the upcoming December 4 Assembly
elections, the Delhi Right To Education Forum (Delhi RTE Forum) has
noted that “almost nothing has been done to introduce strategies to
improve quality of education offered in the city schools”.

Speaking
at a press conference here on Monday the city-based education forum
convener Annie Nammala said: “The city schools are facing a large-scale
violation of the Right to Education Act including lack of teachers,
classrooms, inadequate pupil teacher ratio, existence of corporal
punishment, complete absence of strong functional School Management
Committee (SMC) and lack of awareness about the Act.”

Stating
that parents are not satisfied with the quality of education being
provided in the schools, she added: “The Congress’ claim of Delhi rated
as the best in the implementation of RTE Act only shows how it is being
abused both in the State and at the national level.”

The
Forum also noted that party manifestos are silent about setting up
School Management Committees (SMCs) and providing adequate budgets for
the schools to effectively implement RTE. Demanding the proper
implementation of the RTE ACT and expanding its scope to include
children from three to 18 years, the Forum said special attention needs
to be paid to migrant, SC, ST children, Muslim children, children with
disability, those engaged in rag-picking and children whose parents are
engaged in stigmatised occupations.

“Issues
surrounding discrimination and corporal punishment in schools have to be
addressed immediately and the private sector in education needs to be
regulated with respect to recognition process, fee structures and
curriculum,” noted Saurabh Sharma of the Forum. “The distance criteria
of 1 km for admission under 25 per cent reservation needs to be removed
and the Laadli Scheme should be extended to all girls regardless of
their birthplace,” said another Forum convener, Bharat Singh.